Food Stall: Customers Chase Me across the Country

Chapter 612 - 576: From Holding the Line to Guerrilla Warfare

"Try the young master’s skills."

"Four Happiness Meatballs, please have a taste, elderly folks."

Plate after plate of Four Happiness Meatballs were brought to the table.

The large meatballs were vibrant red in color, perfectly round in shape, with a translucent mist slowly wafting off, and the gentle tremble as the chefs moved made them look irresistibly tempting.

Plate after plate of meatballs were set on the table, and the elderly diners’ gazes lingered on them.

The surface of the meatballs was coated with a thick sauce, bright and red as if they were dazzling rubies.

Zhuo Qianqian happily recommended to the elderly at the table, "Grandpas and Grandmas, try these Four Happiness Meatballs. Each of the four meatballs represents Blessings, Prosperity, Longevity, and Happiness. I hope after eating them, you will live long and prosper, have many blessings, and be happy every day."

The elderly were all laughing heartily at her words, except for the oldest one who was a bit worried, "I’ve had this dish before, it was a bit hard, and I am afraid my teeth can’t handle it."

"Yeah, at the last banquet there was a dish like this, and it was so hard we couldn’t bite through."

"Now that you mention it, I remember, that dish hardly got touched."

"It wasn’t that we didn’t want to eat it, we simply couldn’t. Even chopsticks couldn’t pierce it; we had to cut it small with a knife to eat some."

Zhuo Qianqian already stood up with a new spoon: "Grandpas and Grandmas, don’t worry. My boss makes authentic Four Happiness Meatballs which are very soft. Just watch."

After speaking, she pressed the spoon on one of the meatballs. Wang Fan had made this dish for her before, and she had learned how to eat it.

The spoon in her hand was a disposable, soft plastic spoon, but even with such a soft spoon pressing down, it visibly created a small dent in the meatball.

As Zhuo Qianqian applied more force, cracks began to form in the small dent, which then spread out, eventually splitting the whole meatball.

Upon seeing the inside of the meatball, the grandpas and grandmas couldn’t help but exclaim.

"Wow, this meatball looks so soft."

"Oh my, there’s so much juice inside, forming a little stream, it looks so delicious."

"It looks really soft, should be easy for our teeth to handle, right?"

"If the soft spoon works, surely we can handle it too."

Wang Fan made his Four Happiness Meatballs using traditional methods, primarily seen at birthday banquets. Master chefs of Lu Cuisine had long considered the dental needs of the elderly, so correctly made Four Happiness Meatballs are inherently soft, creamy, and melt in the mouth.

Those that turn out hard and tough, needing a knife to cut open, are purely due to lack of skill, either kneaded too forcefully or having too much starch added.

When Zhuo Qianqian’s soft spoon pressed the meatball, the juice trapped inside was squeezed out.

Wang Fan used meat that was thirty percent fat and seventy percent lean, naturally prone to juiciness. After coating it in flour and deep-frying, the meatball’s surface formed a shell that sealed the juice inside during cooking.

As the meat juice flowed and pooled, the rich, mellow aroma became even more intense, constantly enticing all the elderly around the table.

These elderly folks were unlike certain village elders, who would have already distributed the dish before it was even seen; they each calmly took a portion.

This way, even if they found it unappetizing, there wouldn’t be much waste.

Chunks of the meatball trembled in the grip of the chopsticks, seeming ready to fall apart at any moment; the elders hurriedly supported them with a tray.

Bringing the plate up to their noses, the aroma of scallions, ginger, meat, and Sichuan pepper filled the air, with the scent of scallions and ginger taking prominence, only second to the meat aroma, while the Sichuan pepper was subtle yet unmistakably present.

Before shaping the meatballs, Wang Fan added powdered Sichuan pepper, and finally drizzled some Sichuan pepper oil during thickening, making this aroma a knockout for Sichuan natives — it’s their most familiar flavor.

Affection breeds fondness, enhancing the allure of the meat aroma with the scent of scallions and ginger.

Chef Xiao Liang and a few others had finished their work and were now seated at the table enjoying their meal. Wang Fan wasn’t with them, instead returning to Zhuo Qianqian’s table.

The three professionals were closely examining Wang Fan’s Four Happiness Meatballs, increasingly finding them fascinating.

"How does he make the Four Happiness Meatballs seem structured yet easily crumble? You feel it’s firm, but it breaks upon touch; you think it might fall apart any second, but leave it alone and it sits stably; truly amazing."

Chef Xiao Liang sniffed a piece before inspecting it: "No wonder he slices the ingredients instead of chopping them, allowing the freshness and juice to be sealed inside. The scallions and ginger aroma haven’t escaped at all, it’s all absorbed into the meat."

"Even the meat grains, sliced to the size of soybeans, contract upon heating, only slightly minced, creating a cohesive-yet-loose texture. Plus, the starch provides stickiness, and the bun crumbs add fluffiness, forming this state that’s seemingly loose yet perfectly intact."

Director Geng and other street office staff paid no attention to the three’s murmuring. Director Geng was happily serving the others: "Try the skills of my brilliant apprentice, supposedly a particularly talented chef."

After serving some to the others, he also took a piece for himself.